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Mailing List Logs for ShadowRN

Message no. 1
From: Dvixen <dvixen@********.COM>
Subject: ShadowRN FAQ, Part 2/3
Date: Sat, 7 Feb 1998 22:13:32 -0800
ShadowRN Mailing List FAQ, Part 2 Frequently Asked Questions for
SHADOWRN@********.ITRIBE.NET
Version 2.02
Part 2 of 3
Originally Compiled : A very long time ago, by Robert A. Hayden.
Last Update : November 11, 1997

Fearless Leader : Mark Imbracio <mark@******.net>
Asst. Fearless Leader : Adam Jury <fro@***.ab.ca>
FAQ Flunky : Dvixen <dvixen@********.com>

===

In Part 1 :
1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE OTHER ITRIBE MAILING LISTS
3. OTHER SHADOWRUN PLACES TO CHECK OUT

In This Part :
4. DISCLAIMERS

5. POSTING GUIDELINES
A. General Posting Guidelines.
B. Replying to Previous Posts
C. Flaming
D. Chain Letters
E. File Attachements
F. Mailing List Advertising Policy
G. Posting Formats
H. Off Limits Topics

6. THE DLOH RULE. (AKA - THE MULVIHILL RULE)

In Part 3 :
7. SHADOWRUN SLANG
8. THE SHADOWRN THEME SONG

===

4. DISCLAIMERS
Shadowrun, SRTCG, and the Matrix are property of the FASA Corporation.
Thanks to them for giving us something to keep our brains thinking. (Buy the
stuff, make Mike happy!)

By nature of the topic of this list (cyberpunk fiction and role-playing), it
should be warned that discussions often contain violent, sexual or adult
themes, as well as anarchistic political discussions. The responsibility
(blame?) for each posting falls entirely into the hands of the original
poster. The listowners, postmaster, and the iTribe administration assume no
liability for the contents of postings.

You *may* put a link to the FAQ page :
http://coastnet.com/~dvixen/shadowrn.html or to any of the pages that the
FAQ's are located (.../shadowrn/srnfaq1.html, srnfaq2.html, srnfaq3.html) or
their text counterparts. But you may *not* put a separate copy on your web
site. The Admins and the FAQ Flunky are not responsible for those twonks who
put incorrect or out of date FAQ's for the mailing list on their own sites.)

===

5. POSTING GUIDLINES

5.A General Posting Guidelines.
While the topic of this list is specifically related to Shadowrun, it has
been determined that the topic encompasses far more than the specific rules
within the FASA manuals. Part of the all-important part of any role-paying
game is the atmosphere that the players find themselves in. Often, this
cannot be adaquately explained within the written rules.
To this end, there is a very liberal posting policy with regards to topics.
This is to allow everyday babble and observations to create a virtual
society of sorts on the list, and to give all who participate in and
opportunity to explore that society.
Thus, you will often see postings that are only vaguely related to
Shadowrun being posted. Often this has to do with politics (especially
information politics) or with recent technological breakthroughs. While
there are no hard-set rules with regards to what off-topic postings are
permitted, it should be reminded that we all come here because of our
interest in Shadowrun, so postings should at the very least be of interest
to all, and be within the umbrella of being source material for the
Shadowrun society.

The following actions will take place with regards to off-topic [OT]
postings.
1. Non-Shadowrun threads that live for more that 24 hours will be pointed
out by the listowners (or the list flunky). At that time, either make the
thread once again Shadowrun relevant or take it to private email.
2. Violators will be warned that they are posting in continuation of a
killed thread. (Then when #3 happens, you can't say you weren't warned!)
3. If after 48 hours, the thread still continues, the listowner will start
deleting people from the list. If that happens, you are free to come back,
but at the very least, the deletion will serve as a warning to stay
relevant.

Persons who repeatedly violate the rules and disrupt the use of the list by
others will be be dealt on a case-by-case basis, but action can include (but
is not limited to): temporary removal from the list (for example, six
months), permanent removal from the list or notification to the violator's
sysadmin or service provider.


5.B Replying to Previous Posts
(adapted from a Frequently Reposted Message by Doctor Doom)
When one seeks to juxtapose one's own views with an earlier message, i.e.
reply to an anterior posting, one should:
1. Facilitate differentiation between original and cited material by
denoting text from the former correspondence with initial line characters
(">" and "]" being typical), rather than simply append one's own
material at
the end.
2. Quote, or cite, only those lines pertinent to your reply or
commentary, that is to say, avoid repeating the entire message. With over
200 messages some days coming through SHADOWRN, this is extremely important.
3. Quote the earlier posting previous to insertion of one's own script,
*rather* than including the preceding post at the end of your message.
Hence, observers may see what instigated one's reaction, and following that,
specifically what one's reaction or reply actually was. In line with this is
the popular procedure that "intermingles" the respective texts, by which one
replies to specific lines of text individually, followed by another
citation, followed by more response material, and so forth.
4. Indicate the prior posting's authorship by identifying said message's
originator at the beginning of the earlier material, and not by the
inclusion of the (typically) multiple-line signature file.
I only mention this in interests of the greater good and due to the
fact that others have made similar complaints. It is poor Net etiquette for
those who choose to plow through the volume of mail this list produces and
to have to contend with such obviously unnecessary verbiage -- especially
those members who must actually PAY for electronic mail service.


5.C Flaming
The New Hacker's Dictionary defines the Flame as:
1. vi. To post an email message intended to insult and provoke.
2. vi. To speak incessantly and/or rabidly on some relatively uninteresting
subject or with a patently ridiculous attitude.
3. vt. Either of senses 1 or 2, directed with hostility at a particular
person or people.
4. n. An instance of flaming. When a discussion degenerates into useless
controversy, one might tell the participants "Now you're just flaming" or
"Stop all that flamage!" to try to get them to cool down (so to speak).

Flaming is highly discouraged on the SHADOWRN list, because in the end it
only wastes everyone's time, bandwidth and quota, and seldom if ever leads
to any resolution of problems. If a discussion reaches the point where
people are calling everyone names or insulting, a warning will be issued
from the listowner saying something along the lines of "take it to email".
If the flamers continue to flood the list with their hate-mail, they *will*
be deleted from the list.
One of the other problems is that often someone "insults" someone in a
satirical way. This is something that happens quite often in the real world,
but the real world has the benefit of body-language and tone-of-voice to
show that it is only polite joking. Cyberspace doesn't have that feature.
In order to make sure that your humorous flame isn't taken seriously, make
sure you include a smiley or some other indication to show that you are only
joking.


5.D Chain Letters
Do not send chain letters to SHADOWRN. This includes virus warnings, 'Good
luck/forward this to 10 friends' emails, etc. If you think it is necessary
to post to the list, please check with the list managers first for
permission.


5.E File Attachements
*Never* attach a file to any document sent to the SHADOWRN list. If
somebody wants to see a document you wrote up, send it privately to those
who want it. The reasons for no attachements are very simple. Some people
pay for space on a server, and a 100K MS word document would not usually be
appreaciated. The other reason has to do with software and internet
protocols. People on the list use many different mailers on many different
platforms. Elm and Pine for Unix are both used, Eudora for Win/Mac, Pegasus
mail, Ms and several others are all used. Soem of the mailers don't
interpret the attachment correctly, and all that is recieved is 100k of
garbage.


5.F Mailing List Advertising Policy
The Shadowrun mailing lists accept commercial advertising for payment. We
offer a fee waiver if you can show us the canceled check for a $1000 (U.S.)
or more donation to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. One donation per
advertisement, please. If you don't wish to donate, simply post your
advertisement to the list, and the operator of the mailing lists will bill
$1999 (U.S). The list operator will donate this amount, minus the expense of
collecting it, to EFF. Please note that the lists are distributed
automatically - messages are generally not read or checked in any way before
they are distributed.
By the act of posting your advertisement you agree to accept responsibility
for the fee, you agree to indemnify the mailing-list operator against any
legal claims from you or others in connection with your advertisement, and
you agree to pay any legal and business expenses incurred in collecting late
payment. Our liability to you is limited to a good-faith effort to deliver
your message.
Reduced rates and/or waiver of fee are available for Shadowrun related and
selected other topics of advertisements. You must consult the mailing-list
operator in advance of posting for any reduction or fee waiver.


5.G Posting Formats
Please, please post only in straight, plain text. No html, no attachments,
nothing but plain simple easy to read text. Many mailers do not support the
new html formats, ans besides html mail takes up more room.


5.H Off Limits Discussions
Due to the fact that every time they get brought up in any fashion, a
cinder war begins, they are not to be continued on list *at* *all*.
-OS debates. Yeah, you too Spike, Sascha! (Unless it specifically pertains
to Shadowrun.)
-Mailer debates. If someone posts to the list in violation of the FAQ
rules, help them out, OFF LIST. Or, point them in the direction of someone
who can help them. (get rid of attachemtns, html formats, etc...)

===

6. THE DLOH RULE. (AKA - THE MULVIHILL RULE)

ShadowRN and SRcard are very lucky to have some of the official people and
freelance writers visit the list from time to time. However, with the number
of subscribers on ShadowRN and SRcard, everyone needs to keep in mind that
they cannot respond with definitive answers for every question that gets
asked. (Loki usually will field questions from SRcard to the FASA people,
and then respond the answers to the list.) However, if they start a thread
looking for input (as Steve Kenson does from time to time) they are asking
for it. *grin*

Further Reading

If you enjoyed reading about ShadowRN FAQ, Part 2/3, you may also be interested in:

Disclaimer

These messages were posted a long time ago on a mailing list far, far away. The copyright to their contents probably lies with the original authors of the individual messages, but since they were published in an electronic forum that anyone could subscribe to, and the logs were available to subscribers and most likely non-subscribers as well, it's felt that re-publishing them here is a kind of public service.